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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26634304">Not My Forte</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsweep/pseuds/windsweep'>windsweep</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post-Canon, specifically post-canon after RD</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:01:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26634304</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsweep/pseuds/windsweep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Beorc invent the most strangely elaborate ways to pass the time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shinon &amp; Janaff (Fire Emblem)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Not My Forte</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Describing music is so hard. I wish there was another means of visually representing the exact way it's meant to sound.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Beorc can’t sing, so they invent tools to do it for them…” Janaff thinks aloud as he slowly circles the instrument. At a distance, of course, since Shinon is currently seated on a small bench in front of it, tapping away at its keys in short bursts with small breaks in between, like the babbling song of a hatchling robin. The tones he plays rise and fall, bringing to mind the experience of scaling a hill and walking down its gentle slope onto the grassy plains below.</p><p> </p><p>“Last I checked, hawks can’t sing, either…” Shinon points out, but his hands don’t stop moving. This time, when the sounds reach their steady ascent, there’s a short pause before they begin to rise even higher, now perhaps more like climbing up to the summit of a mountain before starting the long descent to the other side… </p><p> </p><p>“Of course not! We’re hunters, not songbirds!” Janaff says proudly. He stops his pacing for now to give the elaborate <em> thing </em> another look-over; he has never before seen anything like it. It has some scuffs on it here and there; unfortunate, because its wooden casing has a beautiful red undertone to it, a pleasant warm brown to behold. The instrument stands stout and upright in the otherwise rather barren room, accompanied only by its bench and a small table with its associated stool that stood off to a corner. Its keys, black and white in turn, are neatly polished, a sparkling sea and groups of islands sitting atop it. </p><p> </p><p>“And for the record, we can sing just fine, thanks.” A different sort of his little rise-and-fall songs now, this one setting an ominous mood, communicating a treacherous journey to a faraway location and the dangerous trek home. “You guys never bothered to invent musical instruments, huh.”</p><p> </p><p>“<em> You </em> sing? I’d like to hear that…” Janaff can hardly imagine what Shinon’s singing voice would sound like. Other than that it would sound nothing like Reyson’s or especially not Rafiel’s, ethereal and empowering but also refreshing like a spring breeze. But then again, that’s an unfair standard to have of anyone besides the herons.</p><p> </p><p>Shinon snorts with laughter at the suggestion. This is the thing that finally makes him stop moving his fingers. “Nice try! <em> We </em> sing, but <em> I </em> don’t. If you want a demonstration so bad, maybe Mist will humour you. She oughta be around here somewhere.”</p><p> </p><p>“What is this thing and how the hell do you work it? It’s got too many keys.” The wooden casing has a slightly slanted indent up above the keyboard, apparently to accommodate the sheets of paper nestled against it. Along them run markings up and down along sets of lines and the spaces between them, even sometimes veering above or beneath their confines, but it’s all nonsense to Janaff. </p><p> </p><p>“It’s a piano and it’s got as many keys as it needs to have.” Shinon takes some time to stretch and turns himself around to face Janaff. He waves his hand toward himself to beckon the hawk closer. “If you wanna learn, you should watch me closely instead of standing there gawking.”</p><p> </p><p>“Musical notes are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet,” Shinon explains, and he hovers his right hand over a white key in the middle of the board. He presses it and holds it down for a few moments, to allow the tone to ring throughout the room. “C…” He repeats the process for each note he names, skipping over the black keys to reach for the next white key over instead, each producing a higher tone than the last. “D… E… F… G… A… B… and back to C.”</p><p> </p><p>“And the black keys?” Janaff asks immediately. </p><p> </p><p>“Sometimes you need to play a note at a higher or lower pitch than usual.” He presses a key and then its neighbouring black key to the right to demonstrate. “F… and F-sharp. Or…” Another demonstration, but this time between a white key and its neighbouring black key to the left. “B… and B-flat. And before you point it out, yeah there’re no black keys to the right of B or E. If you wanted to play either of those sharp, you’d just move on to C and F.”</p><p> </p><p>“And to play C-flat and F-flat, you’d press B and E instead… huh. Beorc sure love to make things complicated.”  </p><p> </p><p>Shinon shakes his head and rolls his eyes at that. “It ain’t hard, you’re just not used to it. It’s all a repeating pattern. C, C-sharp, D, D-sharp, E, F, F-sharp, G, G-sharp, A, A-sharp, B. Moving in the opposite direction, that’d be C, B, B-flat, A, A-flat, G, G-flat, F, E, E-flat, D, D-flat. You could learn it if you tried. Even Gatrie managed to—” <em> Ohhh, </em> <b> <em>thanks</em> </b> <em> , Shinon! If I can get even half as good as you are, I should meet a nice cultured lady in no time! Say… I oughta hire you to be the pianist for our wedding. How about it? </em> “...Why am I explaining all of this to you.”</p><p> </p><p>Janaff shrugs. “Because I asked, and you wanted to humour me? Gotta say, though… all your music sounds the same so far. Have you thought about expanding your repertoire?”  </p><p> </p><p>“That’d be because I haven’t been <em> playing </em> any songs; I’ve just been going through some scales as a warm-up. God, you really are clueless.”</p><p> </p><p><em> Touchy </em>! But Janaff remembers being that way, too, sometimes, when he was younger. Thirty is a tough age to be! Just because he can look back and empathise doesn’t mean he can resist the urge to snark back at him a little, though. “Well, pray forgive my ignorance, maestro…”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll overlook it if you can keep quiet long enough for me to play something.” Shinon turns back around in his seat and appears to study the stack of papers in front of him. Notes, surely? Or directions, maybe? Janaff will have to ask about the significance of them later. “I mean it. ...It’s hard to focus when I also have to field your questions.”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright, I hear you.” Janaff walks to the back corner of the room to lift the stool there and move it to the middle of the room, where he seats himself, wanting to keep a clear view of Shinon’s fingers moving across the keys when he starts. “Not a word from me until you’ve done your piece.” </p><p> </p><p>“Hmm…” Shinon hums in response, an implied <em> If you say so… </em>behind it. Janaff is true to his word, though, and watches in silence as Shinon takes a deep breath in and out and repositions his hands over the keyboard.</p><p> </p><p>The first notes he plays are deliberate, ponderous, loud, like the impact of a large animal’s footsteps on the ground. The proud announcement of what is to come suddenly gives way to a fluttering passage like the flight of a little songbird, carefree and light on its wings. Just when Janaff is getting used to this change of pace, though, the bold notes from before make a comeback (unfinished business, it seems!) Once again, though, that mood is cast aside in favour of further describing the adventures of the little bird, wheeling across the sky so freely, then landing and filling the air with its warbling song, so full of life despite its size.</p><p> </p><p>There’s a change of scenery in this story now as the music quiets and slows. Night has fallen on this scene. This passage carries on leisurely, dreamily, mysteriously, like the feeling of lying awake at the end of a wonderful day, safe and secure at home, gazing at the shining moonlight, unable to sleep for the feeling of hope and excitement for the future. The sound carries warm undertones: the satisfaction of relaxing alone after a long talk with a treasured friend. Occasionally, the song describes another actor with rising staccato notes; a mischievous figure sneaking around, not ready to submit to sleep just yet. </p><p> </p><p>Dawn breaks over the mood of the piece as it slowly livens up again, in a way that makes its listeners recall waking up the morning after a joyous celebration, wondering if the night before was even real. At this point, Shinon seems unaware that he even has company, engrossed in the sound of his own music as he is, and Janaff marvels at the speed and precision at which his hands move. Janaff is sure now that he’s practised this song many times before, though it’s strange to match the delicate, flowing sounds to the irritable, stubborn man producing them. Eventually, the lumbering creature and its cheerful companion, producing cascading tones after it, make their reappearances again, this time culminating in a long trill between two high notes. It’s sort of like one of Leanne’s galdrs, Janaff thinks, though of course not as beautiful. Not that it’s a fair competition.</p><p> </p><p>The finale is so lively it can hardly contain itself, bounding up, up, up again and again, louder each time it peaks. It has been many decades since Janaff’s childhood, and he can hardly recall more than a few specific events now. The unabashedly joyous energy Shinon expresses through the music here, though, brings to mind the hours Janaff spent flying, chasing his friends, practising their proud hawk screeches, daring one another to fly to ever higher cliffs… The piece is finished soon after that, almost taking Janaff by surprise.</p><p> </p><p>Shinon takes his hands away from the instrument and gives them a shake. “Yep, still got it.”</p><p> </p><p>“Wow…” Is all Janaff can say for the moment, still wanting to reflect on what he just heard, but… “Wait… you’re saying you were out of practice?”</p><p> </p><p>“Eh…” Shinon shrugs. “We only got this thing about a month ago. I was pretty rusty.” </p><p> </p><p>“What made you decide to take it up again?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not my idea; it was Gatrie’s. Thinks he’d be more popular with the ladies if he was a musician, but doesn’t wanna commit to learning anything much more complex than Mary Had A Little Lamb…” Shinon groans as he recalls his frustration. To Gatrie’s credit, he <em> had </em> picked up on some basics very quickly, but his impatience to improve could be so… “He’s frustrated that he hasn’t got years of experience after only one month. So until he quits moping, it <em> is </em> practically my instrument, though.”</p><p> </p><p>“You should be nicer to your friends.” Janaff makes himself sound confident about the word <em> friend </em>, but truly he doesn’t understand the nature of Shinon and Gatrie’s relationship. Why did Shinon keep company he always grumbles about? There must be something really good in it for him…</p><p> </p><p>“<em> He </em> should stop being such a pain in the ass,” Shinon snipes back. “Enough about him. Are you gonna pipe down so I can play the next part? If not, go bother Mist about hearing some human singing.” </p><p> </p><p>“There’s a next part?” Janaff has a hard time believing that when the piece Shinon had played already felt like a complete journey on its own. He’s curious now, though. Was beorc music always such a big production? “...I’d like to hear it.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sure you would,” Shinon says in a sarcastic tone, as if he’s not going to do it, but soon his hands are busy on the keyboard again, and the two sit enveloped by the sound.</p>
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